Gaither and Miller-Uibo through into 200m finale at World Championships

After a disappointing finish in the IAAF World Championships women’s 400-meter final, Shaunae Miller-Uibo put those events behind her and turned her focus to the women’s 200m semi-finals yesterday evening.

She, along with Grand Bahamian Tynia Gaither and Antonique Strachan aimed to be finalists in tonight’s final in London, England. The top sprinters from each semi-final would automatically move onto the final.
Out of the three athletes, however, Miller-Uibo and Gaither will have The Bahamas represented when the gun goes off at 4:50 p.m local time.

The 400m Olympic gold medal winner cruised to a 22.49-second first place finish in heat two of three to automatically qualify. The United State’s Kimberlyn Duncan finished second in the time of 22.73 seconds to also qualify.

In the third and final semi-final sprint, Gaither did not finish in the top two. Nonetheless she advanced by having the eighth best time out of the field of 24. She clocked 22.85 seconds, along with Canada’s Crystal Emmanuel to earn a spot in tonight’s final. Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Cote D’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) and Dina Asher-Smith were the automatic qualifiers in that race. Lu clocked a time of 22.50 seconds, while Smith finished in the time of 22.73 seconds for a season best.

For Strachan she ended her semi-final with an eighth place finish in the time of 23.21 seconds. Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands (22.49 seconds) and Deajah Stevens of the U.S (22.71 seconds) were the top two qualifiers out of the round.

Set to compete this morning was Donald Thomas in the men’s high jump qualification round. That event took place at 6:15 a.m. local time. If Thomas is successful in qualifiers he will compete in the men’s final set for August 13 at 2:00 p.m. local time.